'Bows and quivers were in vain recommended to the peasantry of Scotland, by repeated statutes; spears and axes seem universally to have been used instead of them. The defensive armour was the plate- jack, hauberk, or brigantine; and their missile weapons crossbows and culverins. All wore swords of excellent temper, according to Patten; and a voluminous handkerchief round their neck, "not for cold, but for cutting." The mace also was much used in the Scottish army! The old poem on the battle of Flodden mentions a band—

"Who manfully did meet their foes, With leaden mauls, and lances long."

'When the feudal array of the kingdom was called forth, each man was obliged to appear with forty days' provision. When this was expended, which took place before the battle of Flodden, the army melted away of course. Almost all the Scottish forces, except a few knights, men-at-arms, and the Border-prickers, who formed excellent light-cavalry, acted upon foot.'—SCOTT.

Stanza III. line 48. swarthy, because of the dark leather of which it was constructed.

line 54. See above, Introd. to II. line 48.

line 56. Cheer, countenance, as below, line 244. Cp. Chaucer, 'Knightes Tale,' line 55:—

'The eldeste lady of hem alle spak When sche hadde swowned with a dedly CHERE.'

Stanza IV. line 73. slogan, the war-cry. Cp. Aytoun's 'Burial March of Dundee':—

'Sound the fife and cry the slogan.'

line 96. The Euse and the Liddell flow into the Esk. For some miles the Liddell is the boundary between England and Scotland.

line 100. Brown Maudlin, dark or bronzed Magdalene. pied, variegated, as in Shakespeare's 'daisies pied.' kirtle = short skirt, and so applied to a gown or a petticoat.

Stanza V. For unrivalled illustration of what Celtic chiefs and clansmen were, see 'Waverley' and 'Rob Roy.'

lines 130-5 Cp. opening of Chapman's Homer's Iliad III.:—

'The Trojans would have frayed The Greeks with noises, crying out, in coming rudely on At all parts, like the cranes that fill with harsh confusion Of brutish clanges all the air. '

Stanza VI. lines 143-157. Cp. Dryden's 'Palamon and Arcite,' iii. 1719-1739:—

'The neighing of the generous horse was heard, For battle by the busy groom prepar'd: Rustling of harness, rattling of the shield, Clattering of armour furbish'd for the field,' &c.

line 157. following = feudal retainers.—SCOTT. To the poet's explanation Lockhart appends the remark that since Scott thought his note necessary the word has been 'completely adopted into English, and especially into Parliamentary parlance.'

line 166. Scott says:—'In all transactions of great or petty importance, and among whomsoever taking place, it would seem that a present of wine was a uniform and indispensable preliminary. It was not to Sir John Falstaff alone that such an introductory preface was necessary, however well judged and acceptable on the part of Mr. Brook; for Sir Ralph Sadler, while on an embassy to Scotland in 1539-40, mentions, with complacency, 'the same night came Rothesay (the herald so called) to me again, and brought me wine from the King both white and red.'—Clifford's Edition, p. 39.

line 168. For weeds see above, I. Introd. 256.

Stanza VII. line 172. For wassell see above, I. xv. 231; and cp. 'merry wassail' in 'Rokeby,' III. xv.

line 190. Cp. above, IV. Introd. 3.

line 200. An Elizabethan omission of relative.

Stanza VIII. The admirable characterisation, by which in this and the two following stanzas the King, the Queen, and Lady Heron are individually delineated and vividly contrasted, deserves special attention. There is every reason to believe that the delineations, besides being vivid and impressive, have the additional merit of historical accuracy.

line 213. piled = covered with a pile or nap. The Encyclopaedic Dict., s. v., quotes: 'With that money I would make thee several cloaks and line them with black crimson, and tawny, three filed veluet.'—Barry; Ram Alley, III. i.

line 221. A baldric (remotely from Lat. balteus, a girdle) was an ornamental belt passing over one shoulder and round the other side, and having the sword suspended from it. Cp. Pope's Iliad, III. 415:- -

'A radiant BALDRIC, o'er his shoulder tied, Sustained the sword that glittered at his side.'

See also the 'wolf-skin baldric' in 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' III. xvi.

Stanza IX. line 249. 'Few readers need to be reminded of this belt, to the weight of which James added certain ounces every year that he lived. Pitscottie founds his belief that James was not slain in the battle of Flodden, because the English never had this token of the iron-belt to show to any Scottishman. The person and character of James are delineated according to our best historians. His romantic disposition, which led him highly to relish gaiety, approaching to license, was, at the same time, tinged with enthusiastic devotion. These propensities sometimes formed a strange contrast. He was wont, during his fits of devotion, to assume the dress, and conform to the rules, of the order of Franciscans; and when he had thus done penance for some time in Stirling, to plunge again into the tide of pleasure. Probably, too, with no unusual inconsistency, he sometimes laughed at the superstitions observances to which he at other times subjected himself. There is a very singular poem by Dunbar, seemingly addressed to James IV, on one of these occasions of monastic seclusion. It is a most daring and profane parody on the services of the Church of Rome, entitled:—

"Dunbar's Dirige to the King, Byding ewer lang in Striviling. We that are here, in heaven's glory, To you that are in Purgatory, Commend us on our hearty wise; I mean we folks in Paradise, In Edinburgh, with all merriness, To you in Stirling with distress, Where neither pleasure nor delight is, For pity this epistle wrytis," &c.

See the whole in Sibbald's Collection, vol. i. p. 234.'—SCOTT.

Since Scott's time Dunbar's poems have been edited, with perfect scholarship and skill, by David Laing (2 vols. post 8vo. 1824), and by John Small (in l885) for the Scottish Text Society. See Dict. of Nat. Biog.

lines 254-9. This perfect description may be compared, for accuracy of observation and dexterous presentment, with the steed in 'Venus and Adonis,' the paragon of horses in English verse. Both writers give ample evidence of direct personal knowledge.

Stanza X. line 261. 'It has been already noticed [see note to stanza xiii. of Canto I.] that King James's acquaintance with Lady Heron of Ford did not commence until he marched into England. Our historians impute to the King's infatuated passion the delays which led to the fatal defeat of Flodden. The author of "The Genealogy of the Heron Family" endeavours, with laudable anxiety, to clear the Lady Ford from this scandal; that she came and went, however, between the armies of James and Surrey, is certain. See PINKERTON'S History, and the authorities he refers to, vol. ii. p. 99. Heron of Ford had been, in 1511, in some sort accessory to the slaughter of Sir Robert Kerr of Cessford, Warden of the Middle Marches. It was committed by his brother the bastard, Lilburn, and Starked, three Borderers. Lilburn and Heron of Ford were delivered up by Henry to James, and were imprisoned in the fortress of Fastcastle, where the former died. Part of the pretence of Lady Ford's negotiations with James was the liberty of her husband.'—SCOTT.

line 271. love = beloved. Cp. Burns's 'O my love is like a red red rose.'

line 273. '"Also the Queen of France wrote a love-letter to the King of Scotland, calling him her love, showing him that she had suffered much rebuke in France for the defending of his honour. She believed surely that he would recompense her again with some of his kingly support in her necessity; that is to say, that he would raise her an army, and come three foot of ground on English ground, for her sake. To that effect she sent him a ring off her finger, with fourteen thousand French crowns to pay bis expenses." PITSCOTTIE, p.110.—A turquois ring—probably this fatal gift—is, with James's sword and dagger, preserved in the College of Heralds, London.'—SCOTT.

lines 287-8. The change of movement introduced by this couplet has the intended effect of arresting the attention and lending pathos to the description and sentiment.

Stanza XI. line 302. The wimple was a covering for the neck, said to have been introduced in the reign of Edward I. See Chaucer's 'Prologue,' 151:—

'Ful semely hire wympel i-pynched was.'

line 307. Cp. 2 Henry IV, iii. 2. 9, 'By yea and nay, sir.'

line 308. Cp. refrain of song, ''Twas within a mile o' Edinburgh Town,' in Johnson's Museum :—

'The lassie blush'd, and frowning cried, "No, no, it will not do; I cannot, cannot, wonnot, wonnot, mannot buckle too."'

Stanza XII. The skilful application of the anapaest for the production of the brilliant gallop of 'Lochinvar' has been equalled only by Scott himself in his 'Bonnets o' Bonnie Dundee.' Cp. Lord Tennyson's 'Northern Farmer' (specially New Style), and Mr. Browning's 'How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix.' 'The ballad of Lochinvar,' says Scott, 'is in a very slight degree founded on a ballad called " Katharine Janfarie," which may be found in the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," vol. ii. Mr. Charles Gibbon's 'Laird o' Lamington' is based on the same legend.

line 332. 'See the novel of "Redgauntlet" for a detailed picture of some of the extraordinary phenomena of the spring-tides in the Solway Frith.'—LOCKHART.

line 344. galliard (Sp. gallarda, Fr. gaillarda), a lively dance. Cp. Henry V, i. 2, 252, 'a nimble galliard,' and note on expression in Clarendon Press ed.

line 353. scaur, cliff or river bank. Cp. Blackie's 'Ascent of Cruachan' in 'Lays of the Highlands and Islands,' p. 98:—

'Scale the SCAUR that gleams so red.'

Stanza XIII. line 376. Cp. Dryden's 'Aurengzebe':-

'Love and a crown no rivalship can bear.'

line 382. Sir R. Kerr. See above, line 261.

line 383. Andrew Barton, High Admiral of Scotland, was one of a family of seamen, to whom James IV granted letters of reprisal against Portuguese traders for the violent death of their father. Both the King and the Bartons profited much by their successes. At length the Earl of Surrey, accusing Andrew Barton of attacking English as well as Portuguese vessels, sent two powerful men-of-war against him, and a sharp battle, fought in the Downs, resulted in Barton's death and the capture of his vessels. See Chambers's 'Eminent Scotsmen,' vol. v.

line 386. James sent his herald to Henry before Terouenne, calling upon him to desist from hostilities against Scotland's ally, the king of France, and sternly reminding him of the various insults to which Henry's supercilious policy had subjected him. Flodden had been fought before the messenger returned with his answer. Barclay a contemporary poet, had written about seven years earlier, in his 'Ship of Fooles':—

'If the Englishe Lion his wisedome and riches Conjoyne with true love, peace, and fidelitie With the Scottishe Unicornes might and hardines, There is no doubt but all whole Christentie Shall live in peace, wealth, and tranquilitie.'

But such a desirable consummation was to wait yet a while.

Stanza XIV. line 398. 'Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus,' says Scott, 'a man remarkable for strength of body and mind, acquired the popular name of Bell-the-Cat, upon the following remarkable occasion:—James the Third, of whom Pitscottie complains that he delighted more in music, and "policies of building," than in hunting, hawking, and other noble exercises, was so ill advised as to make favourites of his architects and musicians, whom the same historian irreverently terms masons and fiddlers. His nobility, who did not sympathise in the King's respect for the fine arts, were extremely incensed at the honours conferred on those persons, particularly on Cochrane, a mason, who had been created Earl of Mar; and, seizing the opportunity, when, in 1482, the King had convoked the whole array of the country to march against the English, they held a midnight council in the church of Lauder, for the purpose of forcibly removing these minions from the King's person. When all had agreed on the propriety of this measure, Lord Gray told the assembly the apologue of the Mice, who had formed a resolution, that it would be highly advantageous to their community to tie a bell round the cat's neck, that they might hear her approach at a distance; but which public measure unfortunately miscarried, from no mouse being willing to undertake the task of fastening the bell. "I understand the moral," said Angus, "and, that what we propose may not lack execution, I will bell the cat."'

The rest of the strange scene is thus told by Pitscottie:—

'By this was advised and spoken by thir lords foresaid, Cochran, the Earl of Mar, came from the King to the council, (which council was holden in the kirk of Lauder for the time,) who was well accompanied with a band of men of war; to the number of three hundred light axes, all clad in white livery, and black bends thereon, that they might be known for Cochran the Earl of Mar's men. Himself was clad in a riding-pie of black velvet, with a great chain of gold about his neck, to the value of five hundred crowns, and four blowing horns, with both the ends of gold and silk, set with a precious stone, called a berryl, hanging in the midst. This Cochran had his heumont born before him, overgilt with gold, and so were all the rest of his horns, and all his pallions were of fine canvas of silk, and the cords thereof fine twined silk, and the chains upon his pallions were double overgilt with gold.

'This Cochran was so proud in his conceit, that he counted no lords to be marrows to him, therefore he rushed rudely at the kirk-door. The council inquired who it was that perturbed them at that time. Sir Robert Douglas, Laird of Lochleven, was keeper of the kirk-door at that time, who inquired who that was that knocked so rudely; and Cochran answered, "This is I, the Earl of Mar." The which news pleased well the lords, because they were ready boun to cause take him, as is before rehearsed. Then the Earl of Angus past hastily to the door, and with him Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven, there to receive in the Earl of Mar, and go many of his complices who were there, as they thought good. And the Earl of Angus met with the Earl of Mar, as he came in at the door, and pulled the golden chain from his craig, and said to him, a tow1 would set him better. Sir Robert Douglas syne pulled the blowing horn from him in like manner, and said, "He had been the hunter of mischief over long." This Cochran asked, "My lords, is it mows2, or earnest?" They answered, and said, "It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find; for thou and thy complices have abused our prince this long time; of whom thou shalt hare no more credence, but shalt have thy reward according to thy good service, as thou hast deserved in times bypast; right so the rest of thy followers." ——————————————————- 1rope. 2jest. ——————————————————- 'Notwithstanding, the lords held them quiet till they caused certain armed men to pass into the King's pallion, and two or three wise men to pass with them, and give the King fair pleasant words, till they laid hands on all the King's servants and took them and hanged them before his eyes over the bridge of Lawder. Incontinent they brought forth Cochran, and his hands bound with a tow, who desired them to take one of his own pallion tows and bind his hands, for he thought shame to have his hands bound with such tow of hemp, like a thief. The lords answered, he was a traitor, he deserved no better; and, for despight, they took a hair tether3, and hanged him over the bridge of Lawder, above the rest of his complices.'—PITSCOTTIE, p. 78, folio edit. ——————————————————- 3halter. ——————————————————- line 400. Hermitage Castle is on Hermitage water, which falls into the Liddell. The ruins still exist.

line 402. Bothwell Castle is on the right bank of the Clyde, a few miles above Glasgow. While staying there in 1799 Scott began a ballad entitled 'Bothwell Castle,' which remains a fragment. Lockhart gave it in the 'Life,' i. 305, ed. 1837. There, as here, he makes reference to the touching legendary ballad, 'Bothwell bank thou bloomest fair,' which a traveller before 1605 heard a woman singing in Palestine.

line 406. Reference to Cicero's cedant arma togae, a relic of an attempt at verse.

line 414. 'Angus was an old man when the war against England was resolved upon. He earnestly spoke against that measure from its commencement; and, on the eve of the battle of Flodden, remonstrated so freely upon the impolicy of fighting, that the King said to him, with scorn and indignation, "if he was afraid, he might go home." The Earl burst into tears at this insupportable insult, and retired accordingly, leaving his sons, George, Master of Angus, and Sir William of Glenbervie, to command his followers. They were both slain in the battle, with two hundred gentlemen of the name of Douglas. The aged Earl, broken-hearted at the calamities of his house and his country, retired into a religious house, where he died about a year after the field of Flodden.'—SCOTT.

Stanza XV. lines 415-20. Cp. description of Sir H. Osbaldistone, 'Rob Roy,' chap. vi.

line 429. 'The ruins of Tantallon Castle occupy a high rock projecting into the German Ocean, about two miles east of North Berwick. The building is not seen till a close approach, as there is rising ground betwixt it and the land. The circuit is of large extent, fenced upon three sides by the precipice which overhangs the sea, and on the fourth by a double ditch and very strong outworks. Tantallon was a principal castle of the Douglas family, and when the Earl of Angus was banished, in 1527, it continued to hold out against James V. The King went in person against it, and for its reduction, borrowed from the Castle of Dunbar, then belonging to the Duke of Albany, two great cannons, whose names, as Pitscottie informs us with laudable minuteness, were "Thrawn mouth'd Meg and her Marrow"; also, "two great botcards, and two moyan, two double falcons, and four quarter falcons"; for the safe guiding and re- delivery of which, three lords were laid in pawn at Dunbar. Yet, notwithstanding all this apparatus, James was forced to raise the siege, and only afterwards obtained possession of Tantallon by treaty with the governor, Simon Panango, When the Earl of Angus returned from banishment, upon the death of James, he again obtained possession of Tantallon, and it actually afforded refuge to an English ambassador, under circumstances similar to those described in the text. This was no other than the celebrated Sir Ralph Sadler, who resided there for some time under Angus's protection, after the failure of his negotiation for matching the infant Mary with Edward VI. He says, that though this place was poorly furnished, it was of such strength as might warrant him against the malice of his enemies, and that he now thought himself out of danger. (His State papers were published in 1810, with certain notes by Scott.)

'There is a military tradition, that the old Scottish March was meant to express the words,

"Ding down Tantallon, Mak a brig to the Bass."

'Tantallon was at length "dung down" and ruined by the Covenanters; its lord, the Marquis of Douglas, being a favourer of the royal cause. The castle and barony were sold in the beginning of the eighteenth century to President Dalrymple of North Berwick, by the then Marquis of Douglas.'—SCOTT.

In 1888, under the direction of Mr. Walter Dalrymple, son of the proprietor, certain closed staircases in the ruins were opened, and various excavations were made, with the purpose of discovering as fully as possible what the original character of the structure had been. These operations have added greatly to the interest of the ruin, which both by position and aspect is one of the most imposing in the country.

line 432. 'A very ancient sword, in possession of Lord Douglas, bears, among a great deal of flourishing, two hands pointing to a heart which is placed betwixt them, and the date 1329, being the year in which Bruce charged the Good Lord Douglas to carry his heart to the Holy Land. The following lines (the first couplet of which is quoted by Godscroft, as a popular saying in his time) are inscribed around the emblem:—

"So mony guid as of ye Dovglas beinge, Of ane surname was ne'er in Scotland seine.

I will ye charge, efter yat I depart, To holy grawe, and thair bury my hart; Let it remane ever BOTHE TYME AND HOWR, To ye last day I sie my Saviour.

I do protest in tyme of al my ringe, Ye lyk subject had never ony keing."

'This curious and valuable relic was nearly lost during the Civil War of 1745-6, being carried away from Douglas Castle by some of those in arms for Prince Charles. But great interest having been made by the Duke of Douglas among the chief partisans of the Stuart, it was at length restored. It resembles a Highland claymore, of the usual size, is of an excellent temper, and admirably poised.'— SCOTT.

Stanza XVI. line 461. Scott quotes:—

'O Dowglas! Dowglas Tender and trew.'—The Houlate.

line 470. There are two famous sparrows in literature, the one Lesbia's sparrow, tenderly lamented by Catullus, and the other Jane Scrope's sparrow, memorialised by Skelton in the ' Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe.'

line 475. The tears of such as Douglas are of the kind mentioned in Cowley's 'Prophet,' line 20:—

'Words that weep, and tears that speak.'

Stanza XVII. line 501. 'The ancient cry to make room for a dance or pageant.'—SCOTT.

Cp. Romeo and Juliet, i. 5. 28: 'A hall! a hall! give room,' &c.

line 505. The tune is significant of a Scottish invasion of England. See Scott's appropriate song to the 'ancient air,' 'Monastery,' xxv. Reference is made in I Henry II, ii. 4. 368, to the head-dress of the Scottish soldiers, when Falstaff informs Prince Hal that Douglas is in England, 'and a thousand BLUE-CAPS more.'

Stanza XIX. line 545. Many of the houses in Old Edinburgh are built to a great height, so that the common stairs leading up among a group of them have sometimes been called 'perpendicular streets.' Pitch, meaning 'height,' is taken from hawking, the height to which a bird rose depending largely on the pitch given it.

Stanza XX. line 558. St. Giles's massive steeple is one of the features of Edinburgh. The ancient church, recently renovated by the munificence of the late William Chambers, is now one of the most imposing Presbyterian places of worship in Scotland.

line 569. For bowne see above, IV. 487.

line 571. A certain impressiveness is given by the sudden introduction of this pentameter.

Stanza XXI. Jeffrey, in reviewing' Marmion, 'fixed on this narrative of the Abbess as a passage marked by 'flatness and tediousness,' and could see in it 'no sort of beauty nor elegance of diction.' The answer to such criticism is that the narrative is direct and practical, and admirably suited to its purpose.

line 585. Despiteously, despitefully. 'Despiteous' is used in 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' V. xix. Cp. Chaucer's 'Man of Lawe,' 605 (Clarendon Press ed.):—

'And sey his wyf despitously yslayn.'

line 587. 'A German general, who commanded the auxiliaries sent by the Duchess of Burgundy with Lambert Simnel. He was defeated and killed at Stokefield. The name of this German general is preserved by that of the field of battle, which is called, after him, Swart- moor.—There were songs about him long current in England. See Dissertation prefixed to RITSON'S Ancient Songs, 1792, p. lxi.'— SCOTT.

line 588. Lambert Simnel, the Pretender, made a scullion after his overthrow by Henry VII.

line 590. Stokefield (Stoke, near Newark, county Nottingham) was fought 16 June, 1487.

line 607. 'It was early necessary for those who felt themselves obliged to believe in the divine judgment being enunciated in the trial by duel, to find salvos for the strange and obviously precarious chances of the combat. Various curious evasive shifts, used by those who took up an unrighteous quarrel, were supposed sufficient to convert it into a just one. Thus, in the romance of "Amys and Amelion," the one brother-in-arms, fighting for the other, disguised in his armour, swears that HE did not commit the crime of which the Steward, his antagonist, truly, though maliciously, accused him whom he represented. Brantome tells a story of an Italian, who entered the lists upon an unjust quarrel, but, to make his cause good, fled from his enemy at the first onset. "Turn, coward!" exclaimed his antagonist. "Thou liest," said the Italian, "coward am I none; and in this quarrel will I fight to the death, but my first cause of combat was unjust, and I abandon it." "Je vous laisse a penser," adds Brantome, "s'il n'y a pas de l'abus la." Elsewhere he says, very sensibly, upon the confidence which those who had a righteous cause entertained of victory: "Un autre abus y avoit-il, que ceux qui avoient un juste subjet de querelle, et qu'on les faisoit jurer avant entrer au camp, pensoient estre aussitost vainqueurs, voire s'en assuroient-t-ils du tout, mesmes que leurs confesseurs, parrains et confidants leurs en respondoient tout-a- fait, comme si Dieu leur en eust donne une patente; et ne regardant point a d'autres fautes passes, et que Dieu en garde la punition a ce coup la pour plus grande, despiteuse, et exemplaire."—Discours sur le Duels.'—SCOTT.

Stanza XXII. line 612. Recreant, a coward, a disgraced knight. See 'Lady of the Lake,' V. xvi:—

'Let recreant yield who fears to die';

and cp. 'caitiff recreant,' Richard II, i. 2. 53.

line 633. The Tame falls into the Trent above Tamworth.

Stanza XXIII. line 662. Quaint, neat, pretty, as in Much Ado, iii. 4. 21: 'A fine, quaint, graceful, and excellent fashion.'

Stanza XXIV. line 704. St. Withold, St. Vitalis. Cp. King Lear, iii. 4. III. Clarendon Press ed., and note. This saint was invoked in nightmare.

Stanza XXV. line 717. Malison, curse.

line 717. 'The Cross of Edinburgh was an ancient and curious structure. The lower part was an octagonal tower, sixteen feet in diameter, and about fifteen feet high. At each angle there was a pillar, and between them an arch, of the Grecian shape. Above these was a projecting battlement, with a turret at each corner, and medallions, of rude but curious workmanship, between them. Above this rose the proper Cross, a column of one stone, upwards of twenty feet high, surmounted with a unicorn. This pillar is preserved in the grounds of the property of Drum, near Edinburgh. The Magistrates of Edinburgh, in 1756, with consent of the Lords of Session, (proh pudor!) destroyed this curious monument, under a wanton pretext that it encumbered the street; while, on the one hand, they left an ugly mass called the Luckenbooths, and, on the other, an awkward, long, and low guard-house, which were fifty times more encumbrance than the venerable and inoffensive Cross.

'From the tower of the Cross, so long as it remained, the heralds published the acts of Parliament; and its site, marked by radii, diverging from a stone centre, in the High Street, is still the place where proclamations are made.'—SCOTT.

See Fergusson's 'Plainstanes,' Poems, p. 48. The Cross was restored by Mr. Gladstone in 1885, to commemorate his connexion with Midlothian as its parliamentary representative.

line 735. 'This supernatural citation is mentioned by all our Scottish historians. It was, probably, like the apparition at Linlithgow, an attempt, by those averse to the war, to impose upon the superstitious temper of James IV. The following account from Pitscottie is characteristically minute, and furnishes, besides, some curious particulars of the equipment of the army of James IV. I need only add to it, that Plotcock, or Plutock, is no other than Pluto. The Christians of the middle ages by no means disbelieved in the existence of the heathen deities; they only considered them as devils, and Plotcock, so far from implying any thing fabulous, was a synonyme of the grand enemy of mankind." {2} "Yet all thir warnings, and uncouth tidings, nor no good counsel, might stop the King, at this present, from his vain purpose, and wicked enterprize, but hasted him fast to Edinburgh, and there to make his provision and famishing, in having forth of his army against the day appointed, that they should meet in the Barrow-muir of Edinburgh: That is to say, seven cannons that he had forth of the Castle of Edinburgh, which were called the Seven Sisters, casten by Robert Borthwick, the master-gunner, with other small artillery, bullet, powder, and all manner of order, as the master-gunner could devise.

'"In this meantime, when they were taking forth their artillery, and the King being in the Abbey for the time, there was a cry heard at the Market-cross of Edinburgh at the hour of midnight, proclaiming as it had been a summons, which was named and called by the proclaimer thereof, the summons of Plotcock; which desired all men to compear, both Earl, and Lord, and Baron, and all honest gentlemen within the town, (every man specified by his own name,) to compear, within the space of forty days, before his master, where it should happen him to appoint, and be for the time, under the pain of disobedience. But whether this summons was proclaimed by vain persons, night-walkers, or drunken men, for their pastime, or if it was a spirit, I cannot tell truly: but it was shewn to me, that an indweller of the town, Mr. Richard Lawson, being evil disposed, ganging in his gallery-stair foreanent the Cross, hearing this voice proclaiming this summons, thought marvel what it should be, cried on his servant to bring him his purse; and when he had brought him it, he took out a crown, and cast over the stair, saying, 'I appeal from that summons, judgment, and sentence thereof, and take me all whole in the mercy of God, and Christ Jesus his son.' Verily, the author of this, that caused me write the manner of this summons, was a landed gentleman, who was at that time twenty years of age, and was in the town the time of the said summons; and thereafter, when the field was stricken, he swore to me, there was no man that escaped that was called in this summons, but that one man alone which made his protestation, and appealed from the said summons: but all the lave were perished in the field with the king."'

Stanza XXIX. line 838. 'The convent alluded to is a foundation of Cistertian nuns, near North Berwick, of which there are still some remains. It was founded by Duncan, Earl of Fife, in 1216.'—SCOTT.

line 840. Two rocky islands off North Berwick.

Stanza XXX. line 899. Nares says: 'In the solemn form of excommunication used in the Romish Church, the bell was tolled, the book of offices for the purpose used, and three candles extinguished, with certain ceremonies.' Cp. 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' VI. xxiii. 400, for the observance at a burial service.

Stanza. XXXI. line 914. 'This relates to the catastrophe of a real Robert de Marmion, in the reign of King Stephen, whom William of Newbury describes with some attributes of my fictitious hero: "Homo bellicosus, ferosia, et astucia, fere nullo suo tempore impar." This Baron, having expelled the monks from the church of Coventry, was not long of experiencing the divine judgment, as the same monks, no doubt, termed his disaster. Having waged a feudal war with the Earl of Chester, Marmion's horse fell, as he charged in the van of his troop, against a body of the Earl's followers: the rider's thigh being broken by the fall, his head was cut off by a common foot- soldier, ere he could receive any succour. The whole story is told by William of Newbury.'—SCOTT.

line 926. The story of Judith and Holofernes is in the Apocrypha.

line 928. See Judges iv.

line 931. St. Antony's fire is erysipelas.

Stanza XXXII. line 947. This line, omitted in early editions, was supplied by Lockhart from the MS.

Stanza XXXIII. line 973. Tantallon, owing to its position, presents itself suddenly to those approaching it from the south.

line 980. Lockhart annotates thus:—

'During the regency (subsequent to the death of James V) the Dowager Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, became desirous of putting a French garrison into Tantallon, as she had into Dunbar and Inchkeith, in order the better to bridle the lords and barons, who inclined to the reformed faith, and to secure by citadels the sea-coast of the Frith of Forth. For this purpose, the Regent, to use the phrase of the time "dealed with" the (then) Earl of Angus for his consent to the proposed measure. He occupied himself, while she was speaking, in feeding a falcon which sat upon his wrist, and only replied by addressing the bird, but leaving the Queen to make the application. "The devil is in this greedy gled—she will never be fou." But when the Queen, without appearing to notice this hint, continued to press her obnoxious request, Angus replied, in the true spirit of a feudal noble, "Yes, Madam, the castle is yours; God forbid else. But by the might of God, Madam!" such was his usual oath, "I must be your Captain and Keeper for you, and I will keep it as well as any you can place there.'" -SIR WALTER SCOTT'S Provincial Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 167.—Prose Works, vol. vii. p. 436.

Stanza XXXIV. line 998. Cp. AEneid, IV. 174:—

'Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum.'

line 1001. Strongholds in Northumberland, near Flodden.

line 1017. Opposite Flodden, beyond the Till.

line 1032. 'bated of, diminished. Cp. Timon of Athens, ii. 2. 208:—

' You do yourselves Much wrong; you BATE too much of your own merits.'

INTRODUCTION TO CANTO SIXTH.

Richard Heber (1773-1833) half-brother of Bishop Heber, was for some time M. P. for Oxford University. His large inherited fortune enabled him freely to indulge his love of books, and his, English library of 105,000 volumes cost him L180,000. He had thousands besides on the continent. As a cherished friend of Scott's he is frequently mentioned in the 'Life.' He introduced Leyden to Scott (Life, i. 333, 1837 ed.).

'Mertoun House, the seat of Hugh Scott, Esq., of Harden, is beautifully situated on the Tweed, about two miles below Dryburgh Abbey.'—LOCKHART.

line 7. 'The Iol of the heathen Danes (a word still applied to Christmas in Scotland; was solemnized with great festivity. The humour of the Danes at table displayed itself in pelting each other with bones, and Torfaeus tells a long and curious story, in the History of Hrolfe Kraka, of one Hottus, an inmate of the Court of Denmark, who was so generally assailed with these missiles, that he constructed, out of the bones with which he was overwhelmed, a very respectable intrenchment, against those who continued the raillery. The dances of the northern warriors round the great fires of pine- trees, are commemorated by Olaus Magnus, who says, they danced with such fury, holding each other by the hands, that, if the grasp of any failed, he was pitched into the fire with the velocity of a sling. The sufferer, on such occasions, was instantly plucked out, and obliged to quaff off a certain measure of ale, as a penalty for "spoiling the king's fire."'-SCOTT.

line 33. Scott, after explaining that in Roman Catholic countries mass is never said at night except on Christmas eve, quotes as illustrative of early celebrations of the festival the names and descriptions of the allegorical characters in Jonson's 'Christmas his Masque. 'The personages are Father Christmas himself and his ten sons and daughters, led in by Cupid. 'Baby-Cake,' the youngest child, is misprinted 'Baby-Cocke in Scott.

line 45. Post and pair, a game at cards, is one of the sons of Father Christmas in Jonson's Masque. He comes in with 'a pair-royal of aces in his hat; his garment all done over with pairs and purs; his squire carrying a box, cards, and counters.'

line 55. The reference is to the ancient salt-cellar, which parted superiors from inferiors at table.

line 75. 'It seems certain that the MUMMERS of England, who (in Northumberland at least) used to go about in disguise to the neighbouring houses, bearing the then useless ploughshares; and the GUISARDS of Scotland, not yet in total disuse, present, in some indistinct degree, a shadow of the old mysteries, which were the origin of the English drama. In Scotland, (me ipso teste,) we were wont, during my boyhood, to take the characters of the apostles, at least of Peter, Paul, and Judas Iscariot; the first had the keys, the second carried a sword, and the last the bag, in which the dole of our neighbours' plum-cake was deposited. One played as a champion, and recited some traditional rhymes; another was:—

...."Alexander, King of Macedon, Who conquer'd all the world but Scotland alone. When he came to Scotland his courage grew cold, To see a little nation courageous and bold."

These, and many such verses, were repeated, but by rote, and unconnectedly. There were also, occasionally, I believe, a Saint George. In all, there was a confused resemblance of the ancient mysteries, in which the characters of Scripture, the Nine Worthies, and other popular personages, were usually exhibited. It were much to be wished that the Chester Mysteries were published from the MS. in the Museum, with the annotations which a diligent investigator of popular antiquities might still supply. The late acute and valuable antiquary, Mr. Ritson, showed me several memoranda towards such a task, which are probably now dispersed or lost. See, however, his "Remarks on Shakspeare," 1783, p. 38.

'Since the first edition of "Marmion" appeared, this subject has received much elucidation from the learned and extensive labours of Mr. Douce; and the Chester Mysteries (edited by J. H. Markland, Esq.) have been printed in a style of great elegance and accuracy (in 1818) by Bensley and Sons, London, for the Roxburghe Club. 1830.'—SCOTT.

line 93. The proverb 'Blood is warmer than water' is also common in the form 'Blood is thicker than water.'

line 96. 'Mr. Scott of Harden, my kind and affectionate friend, and distant relation, has the original of a poetical invitation, addressed from his grandfather to my relative, from which a few lines in the text are imitated. They are dated, as the epistle in the text, from Mertoun-house, the seat of the Harden family:—

"With amber beard, and flaxen hair, And reverend apostolic air, Free of anxiety and care, Come hither, Christmas-day, and dine; We'll mix sobriety with wine, And easy mirth with thoughts divine. We Christians think it holiday, On it no sin to feast or play; Others, in spite, may fast and pray. No superstition in the use Our ancestors made of a goose; Why may not we, as well as they, Be innocently blithe that day, On goose or pie, on wine or ale, And scorn enthusiastic zeal?— Pray come, and welcome, or plague rott Your friend and landlord, Walter Scott. "Mr. Walter Scott, Lessuden"

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

line 111. 'See Introduction to the 'Minstrelsy,' vol. iv. p. 59.'— LOCKHART.

lines 117-20. The Tweed winds and loiters around Mertoun and its grounds as if fascinated by their attractiveness. With line. 120 cp. 'clipped in with the sea,' I Henry IV, iii. I. 45.

line 126. Cp. 2 Henry IV, iii. 2. 228: 'We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow!'

line 132. Scott quotes from Congreve's 'Old Bachelor,'—'Hannibal was a pretty fellow, sir—a very pretty fellow in his day,' which is part of a speech by Noll Bluffe, one of the characters.

line 139. With 'Limbo lost,' cp. the 'Limbo large and broad' of 'Paradise Lost,' iii. 495. Limbo is the borders of hell, and also hell itself.

line 143. 'John Leyden, M. D., who had been of great service to Sir Walter Scott in the preparation of the 'Border Minstrelsy,' sailed for India in April, 1803, and died at Java in August, 1811, before completing his 36th year.

"Scenes sung by him who sings no more! His brief and bright career is o'er, And mute his tuneful strains; Quench'd is his lamp of varied lore, That loved the light of song to pour; A distant and a deadly shore Has LEYDEN'S cold remains." Lord of the Isles, Canto IV.

'See a notice of his life in the Author's Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. iv.'—LOCKHART.

line 146. For the solemn and powerful interview of Hercules and Ulysses, see close of Odyssey XI. Wraith (Icel. vordhr, guardian) is here used for SHADE. In Scottish superstition it signifies the shadow of a person seen before death, as in 'Guy Mannering,' chap. x: 'she was uncertain if it were the gipsy, or her WRAITH.' The most notable use of the word and the superstition in recent poetry is in Rossetti's 'King's Tragedy':—

'And the woman held his eyes with her eyes:— "O King; thou art come at last; But thy WRAITH has haunted the Scottish sea To my sight for four years past. "Four years it is since first I met, 'Twixt the Duchray and the Dhu, A shape whose feet clung close in a shroud, And that shape for thine I knew,"' &c.

line 148. AEneid, III. 19.

line 159. 'This passage is illustrated by "Ceubren yr Ellyll, or the Spirit's Blasted Tree," a legendary tale, by the Reverend George Warrington, who says:—

'"The event, on which the tale is founded, is preserved by tradition in the family of the Vaughans of Hengwyrt; nor is it entirely lost, even among the common people, who still point out this oak to the passenger. The enmity between the two Welsh chieftains, Howel Sele, and Owen Glendwr, was extreme, and marked by vile treachery in the one, and ferocious cruelty in the other. {3} The story is somewhat changed and softened, as more favourable to the character of the two chiefs, and as better answering the purpose of poetry, by admitting the passion of pity, and a greater degree of sentiment in the description. Some trace of Howel Sele's mansion was to be seen a few years ago, and may perhaps be still visible, in the park of Nannau, now belonging to Sir Robert Vaughan, Baronet, in the wild and romantic tracks of Merionethshire. The abbey mentioned passes under two names, Vener and Cymmer. The former is retained, as more generally used."—See the Metrical Tale in Sir Walter Scott's Poetical Works, vol. vii. pp. 396-402.'—LOCKHART.

line 161. By a victory gained at Maida, 6 July 1806, Sir John Stuart broke the power of the French in southern Italy.

line 163. 'The Daoine shi,' or Men of Peace, of the Scottish Highlanders, rather resemble the Scandinavian Duergar, than the English Fairies. Notwithstanding their name, they are, if not absolutely malevolent, at least peevish, discontented, and apt to do mischief on slight provocation. The belief of their existence is deeply impressed on the Highlanders, who think they are particularly offended at mortals, who talk of them, who wear their favourite colour green, or in any respect interfere with their affairs. This is especially to be avoided on Friday, when, whether as dedicated to Venus, with whom, in Germany, this subterraneous people are held nearly connected, or for a more solemn reason, they are more active and possessed of greater power. Some curious particulars concerning the popular superstitions of the Highlanders may be found in Dr. Graham's Picturesque Sketches of Perthshire.'—SCOTT.

Friday (the day of the goddess Freya) is regarded as lucky for marriages. Mr. Thiselton Dyer in 'Domestic Folk-lore,' p. 39, quotes the City Chamberlain of Glasgow as affirming that 'nine-tenths of the marriages in Glasgow are celebrated on a Friday.' In Hungary nothing of any importance is undertaken on a Friday, and there is a Hungarian proverb which says that 'whoever is merry on a Friday is sure to weep on the Sunday.' The Sicilians make the exception for weddings. In America Friday is a lucky day-the New World, no doubt, upsetting in this as other matters the conservatism of the Old. The superstition of sailors about Friday is famous. Cp. the old English song 'The Mermaid.' For further discussion of the subject see 'Notes and Queries,' 6th S. vol. vi.

line 175. 'The journal of the Friend, to whom the Fourth Canto of the poem is inscribed, furnished me with the following account of a striking superstition:—

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

line 190. Begun has always been a possible past tense in poetry, and living poets continue its use. There is an example in Mr. Browning's 'Waring':—

'Give me my so-long promised son, Let Waring end what I BEGUN;

and Lord Tennyson writes:—

'The light of days when life BEGUN!

in the memorial verses prefixed to his brother's 'Collected Sonnets' (1879).

line 205. Robert Lindsay of Pittscottie (a Fife estate, eastward of Cupar) lived in the first half of the sixteenth century, and wrote 'Chronicles of Scotland' from James II to Mary. Nothing further of him is known with certainty. Like the Lion King he was a cadet of the noble family of Lindsay, including Crawford and Lindsay and Lindsay of the Byres.

line 207. See above, IV. xiv.

line 212. John of Fordun (a village in Kincardineshire) about the end of the fourteenth century wrote the first five of the sixteen books of the 'Scotochronicon,' the work being completed by Walter Bower, appointed Abbot of St. Colm's, 1418.

line 220. Gripple, tenacious, narrow. See 'Waverley,' chap. lxvii. - -'Naebody wad be sae gripple as to take his gear'; and cp. 'Faerie Queene,' VI. iv. 6:—

'On his shield he GRIPPLE hold did lay.'

line 225. They hide away their treasures without using them, as the magpie or the jackdaw does with the articles it steals.

CANTO SIXTH.

Stanza I. line 6. Cp. Job xxxix. 25.

line 8. Terouenne, about thirty miles S. E. of Calais.

line 9. Leaguer, the besiegers' camp. Cp. Longfellow's 'Evangeline,' I. 5,—

'Like to a gipsy camp, or a LEAGUER after a battle.'

Stanza II. lines 27-30. Cp. 'Faerie Queene,' III. iv. 7.:—

'The surges hore That 'gainst the craggy clifts did loudly rore, And in their raging surquedry disdaynd That the fast earth affronted them so sore.'

lines 34-6. The cognizance was derived from the commission Brace gave the Good Lord James Douglas to carry his heart to Palestine. The FIELD is the whole surface of the shield, the CHIEF the upper portion. The MULLET is a star-shaped figure resembling the rowel of a spur, and having five points.

line 45. Bartisan, a small overhanging turret.

line 46. With vantage-coign, or advantageous corner, cp. 'Macbeth,' i. 6. 7.

Stanza III. line 69. Adown, poetical for down. Cp. Chaucer, 'Monkes Tale,' 3630, Clarendon Press ed.:—

'Thus day by day this child bigan to crye Til in his fadres barme ADOUN it lay.'

lines 86-91. Cp. Coleridge's 'Christabel,' line 68.

'I guess, 'twas frightful there to see A lady so richly clad as she— Beautiful exceedingly.'

Stanza IV. lines 106-9. Cp. 'Il Penseroso,' 161-6,—

'There let the pealing organ blow To the full voic'd quire below, In service high, and anthems clear, As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all Heav'n before mine eyes.'

See also Coleridge's 'Dejection,' v.:—

'O pure of heart! thou need'st not ask of me What this strong music in the soul may be!' &c.

line 112. 'I shall only produce one instance more of the great veneration paid to Lady Hilda, which still prevails even in these our days; and that is, the constant opinion, that she rendered, and still renders herself visible, on some occasions, in the Abbey of Streamshalh, or Whitby, where she so long resided. At a particular time of the year (viz. in the summer months), at ten or eleven in the forenoon, the sunbeams fall in the inside of the northern part of the choir; and 'tis then that the spectators, who stand on the west side of Whitby churchyard, so as just to see the most northerly part of the abbey pass the north end of Whitby church, imagine they perceive, in one of the highest windows there, the resemblance of a woman, arrayed in a shroud. Though we are certain this is only a reflection caused by the splendour of the sunbeams, yet fame reports it, and it is constantly believed among the vulgar, to be an appearance of Lady Hilda in her shroud, or rather in a glorified state; before which, I make no doubt, the Papists, even in these our days, offer up their prayers with as much zeal and devotion, as before any other image of their most glorified saint." CHARLTON'S History of Whitby, p. 33.'—SCOTT.

Stanza V. line 131. What makes, what is it doing? Cp. Judges xviii. 3: 'What makest thou in this place?' The usage is frequent in Shakespeare; as e.g. As Yo Like It, i. I. 31: 'Now sir! what make you here?'

line 137. Blood-gouts, spots of blood. Cp. 'gouts of blood,' Macbeth, ii. I. 46.

line 150. Shakespeare, King John, iv. 2. 13, makes Salisbury say that—

'To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish Is wasteful, and ridiculous excess.'

Stanza VI. line 174. Beadsman, one hired to pray for another. Cp. 'Piers the Plowman,' B, III. 40:—

'I shal assoille the my-selue . for a seme of whete, And also be thi BEDEMAN.'

Edie Ochiltree, the Blue-gown in 'The Antiquary,' belongs to the class called King's Bedesmen, 'an order of paupers to whom the kings of Scotland were in the custom of distributing a certain alms, in conformity with the ordinances of the Catholic Church, and who were expected in return to pray for the royal welfare and that of the state.' See Introd. to the novel. Cp. also Henry V, iv. I. 315:—

'Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,' &c.

Stanza VII. line 218. The Palmer's dress is put off like the serpent's slough. Cp. the Earl of Surrey's Spring sonnet—

'The adder all her slough away she flings.'

Stanza VIII. line 261. Featly, cleverly, dexterously. Cp. Tempest, i. 2. 380:—

'Foot it FEATLY here and there.'

Stanza IX. line 271. See Otterbourne, 'Border Minstrelsy,' i. p. 345. Douglas's death, during the battle was kept secret, so that when his men conquered, as if still under his command, the old prophecy was fulfilled that a dead Douglas should, win the field.

line 280. James encamped in Twisel glen (local spelling 'Twizel') before taking post on Flodden.

line 282. The squire's final act of qualification for knighthood was to watch by his armour till midnight. In his Essay on 'Chivalry' Scott says: 'The candidates watched their arms ALL NIGHT in a church or chapel, and prepared for the honour to be conferred on them by vigil, fast, and prayer.' For a hasty and picturesque ceremony of knighthood see Scott's 'Halidon Hill,' I. ii.

Stanza XI. With the moonlight scene opening this stanza, cp. 'Lay of Last Minstrel,' II. i. Scott is fond of moonlight effects, and he always succeeds with them. See e.g. a passage in 'Woodstock,' chap. xix, beginning 'There is, I know not why, something peculiarly pleasing to the imagination in contemplating the Queen of Night,' &c.

line 327. 'The well-known Gawain Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, son of Archibald Bell-the-Cat, Earl of Angus. He was author of a Scottish metrical version of the "AEneid," and of many other poetical pieces of great merit. He had not at this period attained the mitre.'— SCOTT.

A word of caution is necessary as to the 'many pieces' mentioned here. Besides his 'AEneid, ' Douglas's extant works are 'Palice of Honour,' 'King Hart,' and a poem of four stanzas entitled 'Conscience.' To each book of the 'AEneid,' however, as well as to the supplementary thirteenth book of Maphaeus Vegius, which he also translates, he prefixes an introductory poem, so that there is a sense in which it is correct to call him the author of 'many pieces.' His works were first published in complete form in 1874, in four volumes, admirably edited by the late Dr. John Small. See 'Dict. of Nat. Biog.'

line 329. Rocquet, a linen surplice.

line 344, 'Angus had strength and personal activity corresponding to his courage. Spens of Kilspindie, a favourite of James IV, having spoken of him lightly, the Earl met him while hawking, and, compelling him to single combat, at one blow cut asunder his thigh- bone, and killed him on the spot. But ere he could obtain James's pardon for this slaughter, Angus was obliged to yield his castle of Hermitage, in exchange for that of Bothwell, which was some diminution to the family greatness. The sword with which he struck so remarkable a blow, was presented by his descendant, James Earl of Morton, afterwards Regent of Scotland, to Lord Lindesay of the Byres, when he defied Bothwell to single combat on Carberry-hill. See Introduction to the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border'—SCOTT.

Stanza XII. line 379. With the use of fall = befall cp. Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 7. 38:—

'No disgrace Shall FALL you for refusing him at sea.'

Stanza XIV. line. Saint Bride is Saint Bridget of Ireland, who became popular in England and Scotland under the abbreviated form of her name. She was 'a favourite saint of the house of Douglas, and of the Earl of Angus in particular.' See note to Clarendon Press 'Lay of Last Minstrel,' VI. 469.

line 437. 'This ebullition of violence in the potent Earl of Angus is not without its example in the real history of the house of Douglas, whose chieftains possessed the ferocity, with the heroic virtues, of a savage state. The most curious instance occurred in the case of Maclellan, Tutor of Bombay, who, having refused to acknowledge the pre-eminence claimed by Douglas over the gentlemen and Barons of Galloway, was seized and imprisoned by the Earl, in his castle of the Thrieve, on the borders of Kirkcudbrightshire. Sir Patrick Gray, commander of King James the Second's guard, was uncle to the Tutor of Bombay, and obtained from the King a "sweet letter of supplication," praying the Earl to deliver his prisoner into Gray's hand. When Sir Patrick arrived at the castle, he was received with all the honour due to a favourite servant of the King's household; but while he was at dinner, the Earl, who suspected his errand, caused his prisoner to be led forth and beheaded. After dinner, Sir Patrick presented the King's letter to the Earl, who received it with great affectation of reverence; "and took him by the hand, and led him forth to the green, where the gentleman was lying dead, and showed him the manner, and said, 'Sir Patrick, you are come a little too late; yonder is your sister's son lying, but he wants the head; take his body, and do with it what you will.'— Sir Patrick answered again with a sore heart, and said, 'My lord, if ye have taken from him his head, dispone upon the body as ye please;' and with that called for his horse, and leaped thereon; and when he was on horseback, he said to the Earl on this manner: 'My Lord, if I live, you shall be rewarded for your labours, that you have used at this time, according to your demerits.'

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

Stanza XV. line 456. Cp. above, III. 429, and see As You Like It, i. 2. 222: 'Hercules be thy speed!' The short epistle of St. Jude is uncompromising in its condemnation of those who have fallen from their faith—who have forgotten, so to speak, their vows of true knighthood. It closes with the beautiful ascription—'To Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.' There is deep significance, therefore, in this appeal of the venerable and outraged knight for the protection of St. Jude.

line 457. 'Lest the reader should partake of the Earl's astonishment, and consider the crime as inconsistent with the manners of the period, I have to remind him of the numerous forgeries (partly executed by a female assistant) devised by Robert of Artois, to forward his suit against the Countess Matilda; which, being detected, occasioned his flight into England, and proved the remote cause of Edward the Third's memorable wars in France. John Harding, also, was expressly hired by Edward IV to forge such documents as might appear to establish the claim of fealty asserted over Scotland by the English monarchs.'—SCOTT.

line 458. It likes was long used impersonally, in the sense of it pleases. Cp. King John, ii. 2. 234: 'It likes us well.'

line 460. St. Bothan, Bythen, or Bethan is said to have been a cousin of St. Columba and his successor at Iona. His name is preserved in the Berwickshire parish, Abbey-Saint-Bathan's; where, towards the close of the twelfth century, a Cistertian nunnery, with the title of a priory, was dedicated to him by Ada, daughter of William the Lion. There is no remaining trace of this structure.

line 461. The other sons could at least sign their names. Their signatures are reproduced in facsimile in 'The Douglas Book' by Sir William Eraser, 4 vols. 4to, Edin. 1886 (privately printed).

line 468. Fairly, well, elegantly, as in Chaucer's Prol. 94:—

'Well cowde he sitte on hors, and FAIRE ryde';

and in 'Faerie Queene,' I. i. 8:—

'Full jolly knight he seemed, and FAIRE did sitt.'

Stanza XVI. line 498. This line is a comprehensive description of a perfectly satisfactory charger or hunter.

line 499. Sholto is one of the Douglas family names. One of the Earl's sons, being sheriff, could not go with his brothers to the war.

line 500. 'His eldest son, the Master of Angus.'—SCOTT.

Stanza XVII. line 532. In Bacon's ingenious essay, 'Of Simulation and Dissimulation,' he states these as the three disadvantages of the qualities:—'The first, that Simulation and Dissimulation commonly carry with them a show of fearfulness, which, in any business, doth spoil the feathers of round flying up to the mark. The second, that it puzzleth and perplexeth the conceits of many, that would otherwise co-operate with him, and makes a man almost alone to his own ends. The third, and greatest, is that it depriveth a man of one of the most principal instruments for action; which is trust and belief.'

Stanza XVIII. line 540. 'This was a Cistertian house of religion, now almost entirely demolished. Lennel House is now the residence of my venerable friend, Patrick Brydone, Esquire, so well known in the literary world. {4} It is situated near Coldstream, almost opposite Cornhill, and consequently very near to Flodden Field.'—SCOTT.

line 568. traversed, moved in opposition, as in fencing. Cp. Merry Wives, ii. 3. 23: 'To see thee fight, to see thee foin, to see thee traverse,' &c.

Stanza XIX line 573, 'On the evening previous to the memorable battle of Flodden, Surrey's headquarters were at Barmoor Wood, and King James held an inaccessible position on the ridge of Flodden- hill, one of the last and lowest eminences detached from the ridge of Cheviot. The Till, a deep and slow river, winded between the armies. On the morning of the 9th September, 1513, Surrey marched in a north-westerly direction, and crossed the Till, with his van and artillery, at Twisel Bridge, nigh where that river joins the Tweed, his rear-guard column passing about a mile higher, by a ford. This movement had the double effect of placing his army between King James and his supplies from Scotland, and of striking the Scottish monarch with surprise, as he seems to have relied on the depth of the river in his front. But as the passage, both over the bridge and through the ford, was difficult and slow, it seems possible that the English might have been attacked to great advantage while straggling with these natural obstacles. I know not if we are to impute James's forbearance to want of military skill, or to the romantic declaration which Pitscottie puts in his mouth, "that he was determined to have his enemies before him on a plain field," and therefore would suffer no interruption to be given, even by artillery, to their passing the river.

'The ancient bridge of Twisel, by which the English crossed the Till, is still standing beneath Twisel Castle, a splendid pile of Gothic architecture, as now rebuilt by Sir Francis Blake, Bart., whose extensive plantations have so much improved the country around. The glen is romantic and delightful, with steep banks on each side, covered with copse, particularly with hawthorn. Beneath a tall rock, near the bridge, is a plentiful fountain, called St. Helen's Well.'—SCOTT.

That James was credited by his contemporaries with military skill and ample courage will be seen by reference to Barclay's 'Ship of Fooles,' formerly referred to. The poet proposes a grand general European movement against the Turks, and suggests James IV as the military leader. The following complimentary acrostic is a feature of the passage:—

'I n prudence pereles is this moste comely kinge; A nd as for his strength and magnanimitie C onceming his noble dedes in every thinge, O ne founde on grounde like to him can not be. B y birth borne to boldenes and audacitie, U nder the bolde planet of Mars the champion, S urely to subdue his enemies eche one.'

line 583. Sullen is admirably descriptive of the leading feature in the appearance of the Till just below Twisel Bridge. No one contrasting it with the Tweed at Norham will have difficulty in understanding the saying that:—

'For a'e man that Tweed droons, Till droons three.'

Stanza XX. line 608. The earlier editions have vails, 'lowers' or 'checks'; as in Venus and Adonis, 956, 'She vailed her eyelids.' The edition of 1833 reads 'VAILS, contr. for 'avails.'

line 610. Douglas and Randolph were two of Bruce's most trusted leaders.

line 611. See anecdote in 'Border Minstrelsy,' ii. 245 (1833 ed.), with its culmination, 'O, for one hour of Dundee!' Cp. 'Pleasures of Hope' (close of Poland passage):—

'Oh! once again to Freedom's cause return The Patriot Tell—the Bruce of Bannockburn!'

and Wordsworth's sonnet, 'In the Pass of Killicranky,' in which the aspiration for 'one hour of that Dundee' is prompted by the fear of an invasion in 1803.

Stanza XXI. line 626. Hap what hap, come what may. Cp. above 'tide what tide,' III. 416.

line 627. Basnet, a light helmet.

Stanza XXIII. line 682. 'The reader cannot here expect a full account of the Battle of Flodden: but, so far as is necessary to understand the romance, I beg to remind him, that, when the English army, by their skilful countermarch, were fairly placed between King James and his own country, the Scottish monarch resolved to fight; and, setting fire to his tents, descended from the ridge of Flodden to secure the neighbouring eminence of Brankstone, on which that village is built. Thus the two armies met, almost without seeing each other, when, according to the old poem of "Flodden Field,"—

"The English line stretch'd east and west, And southward were their faces set; The Scottish northward proudly prest, And manfully their foes they met."

The English army advanced in four divisions. On the right, which first engaged, were the sons of Earl Surrey, namely, Thomas Howard, the Admiral of England, and Sir Edmund, the Knight Marshal of the army. Their divisions were separated from each other; but, at the request of Sir Edmund, his brother's battalion was drawn very near to his own. The centre was commanded by Surrey in person; the left wing by Sir Edward Stanley, with the men of Lancashire, and of the palatinate of Chester. Lord Dacres, with a large body of horse, formed a reserve. When the smoke, which the wind had driven between the armies, was somewhat dispersed, they perceived the Scots, who had moved down the hill in a similar order of battle, and in deep silence. {5} The Earls of Huntley and of Home commanded their left wing, and charged Sir Edmund Howard with such success as entirely to defeat his part of the English right wing. Sir Edmund's banner was beaten down, and he himself escaped with difficulty to his brother's division. The Admiral, however, stood firm; and Dacre advancing to his support with the reserve of cavalry, probably between the interval of the divisions commanded by the brothers Howard, appears to have kept the victors in effectual check. Home's men, chiefly Borderers, began to pillage the baggage of both armies; and their leader is branded, by the Scottish historians, with negligence or treachery. On the other hand, Huntley, on whom they bestow many encomiums, is said, by the English historians, to have left the field after the first charge. Meanwhile the Admiral, whose flank these chiefs ought to have attacked, availed himself of their inactivity, and pushed forward against another large division of the Scottish army in his front, headed by the Earls of Crawford and Montrose, both of whom were slain, and their forces routed. On the left, the success of the English was yet more decisive; for the Scottish right wing, consisting of undisciplined Highlanders, commanded by Lennox and Argyle, was unable to sustain the charge of Sir Edward Stanley, and especially the severe execution of the Lancashire archers. The King and Surrey, who commanded the respective centres of their armies, were meanwhile engaged in close and dubious conflict. James, surrounded by the flower of his kingdom, and impatient of the galling discharge of arrows, supported also by his reserve under Bothwell, charged with such fury that the standard of Surrey was in danger. At that critical moment, Stanley, who had routed the left wing of the Scottish, pursued his career of victory, and arrived on the right flank, and in the rear of James's division, which, throwing itself into a circle, disputed the battle till night came on. Surrey then drew back his forces; for the Scottish centre not having been broken, and the left wing being victorious, he yet doubted the event of the field. The Scottish army, however, felt their loss, and abandoned the field of battle in disorder, before dawn. They lost, perhaps, from eight to ten thousand men; but that included the very prime of their nobility, gentry, and even clergy. Scarce a family of eminence but has an ancestor killed at Flodden; and there is no province in Scotland, even at this day, where the battle is mentioned without a sensation of terror and sorrow. The English also lost a great number of men, perhaps within one-third of the vanquished, but they were of inferior note.—See the only distinct detail of the Field of Flodden in PINKERTON'S History, Book xi; all former accounts being full of blunders and inconsistency.

'The spot from which Clara views the battle, must be supposed to have been on a hillock commanding the rear of the English right wing, which was defeated, and in which conflict Marmion is supposed to have fallen.'—SCOTT.

Lockhart adds this quotation:—'In 1810, as Sir Carnaby Haggerstone's workmen were digging in Flodden Field, they came to a pit filled with human bones, and which seemed of great extent; but, alarmed at the sight, they immediately filled up the excavation, and proceeded no farther.

'In 1817, Mr. Grey of Millfield Hill found, near the traces of an ancient encampment, a short distance from Flodden Field, a tumulus, which, on removing, exhibited a very singular sepulchre. In the centre, a large urn was found, but in a thousand pieces. It had either been broken to pieces by the stones falling upon it when digging, or had gone to pieces on the admission of the air. This urn was surrounded by a number of cells formed of flat stones, in the shape of graves, but too small to hold the body in its natural state. These sepulchral recesses contained nothing except ashes, or dust of the same kind as that in the urn."—Sykes' Local Records (2 vols. 8vo, 1833), vol. ii. pp. 60 and 109.'

Stanza XXIV. line 717. 'Sir Brian Tunstall, called in the romantic language of the time, Tunstall the Undefiled, was one of the few Englishmen of rank slain at Flodden. He figures in the ancient English poem, to which I may safely refer my readers, as an edition, with full explanatory notes, has been published by my friend, Mr. Henry Weber. Tunstall, perhaps, derived his epithet of undefiled from his white armour and banner, the latter bearing a white cock, about to crow, as well as from his unstained loyalty and knightly faith. His place of residence was Thurland Castle.'—SCOTT.

Stanza XXV. line 744. Bent, the slope of the hill. It is less likely to mean the coarse grass on the hill—also a possible meaning of the word—because spectators would see the declivity and not what was on it. For the former usage see Dryden, 'Palamon and Arcite,' II. 342-45:—

'A mountain stood, Threat'ning from high, and overlook'd the wood; Beneath the low'ring brow, and on a BENT, The temple stood of Mars armipotent.'

line 745. The tent was fired so that the forces might descend amid the rolling smoke.

line 747. As a poetical critic Jeffrey was right for once when he wrote thus of this great battle piece:—

'Of all the poetical battles which have been fought, from the days of Homer to those of Mr. Southey, there is none, in our opinion, at all comparable, for interest and animation—for breadth of drawing and magnificence of effect—with this of Mr. Scott's.'

line 757. To this day a commanding position to the west of the hill is called the 'King's Chair.'

Stanza XXVI. line 795. 'Badenoch-man,' says Lockhart, 'is the correction of the author's interleaved copy of the ed. of 1830.' HIGHLANDMAN was the previous reading. Badenoch is in the S. E. of co. of Inverness, between Monagh Lea mountains and Grampians.

Stanza XXVIII. line 867 Sped, undone, killed. Cp. Merchant of Venice, ii. 9. 70: ' So be gone; you are sped.' See also note on 'Lycidas' 122, Clarendon Press Milton, vol. i.

Stanza XXX. The two prominent features of this stanza are the sweet tenderness of the verses, and the illustration of the irony of events in the striking culmination of the hero's career.

line 904. Cp. Pope, 'Moral Epistles,' II. 269:—

'And yet, believe me, good as well as ill, Woman's at best a contradiction still.'

line 906. Cp. Byron's 'Sardanapalus,' I. ii. 511:—

'Your last sighs Too often breathed out in a woman's hearing, When men have shrunk from the ignoble care Of watching the last hour of him who led them.'

Stanza XXXII. line 972. See above, III. x.

line 976. Metaphor from the sand-glass. Cp. Pericles, v. 2. 26:—

'Now our sands are almost run.'

Stanza XXXIII. lines 999-1004. Charlemagne's rear-guard under Roland was cut to pieces by heathen forces at Roncesvalles, a valley in Navarre, in 778. Roland might have summoned his uncle Charlemagne by blowing his magic horn, but this his valour prevented him from doing till too late. He was fatally wounded, and the 'Song of Roland,' telling of his worth and prowess, is one of the best of the mediaeval romances. Olivier was also a distinguished paladin, and the names of the two are immortalized in the proverb 'A Rowland for an Oliver.' Fontarabia is on the coast of Spain, about thirty miles from Roncesvalles. See Paradise Lost, I. 586, and note in Clarendon Press ed.

line 1011 Our Caledonian pride, fitly and tenderly named 'the flowers of the forest.'

Stanza XXXIV. line 1034. Cp. 'spearmen's twilight wood,' 'Lady of the Lake,' VI. xvii.

line 1035. Cp. Aytoun's 'Edinburgh after Flodden,' vii, where Randolph Murray tells of the 'riven banner':—

'It was guarded well and long By your brothers and your children, By the valiant and the strong. One by one they fell around it, As the archers laid them low, Grimly dying, still unconquered, With their faces to the foe.'

line 1059. Lockhart here gives an extract from Jeffrey:—'The powerful poetry of these passages can receive no illustration from any praise or observations of ours. It is superior, in our apprehension, to all that this author has hitherto produced; and, with a few faults of diction, equal to any thing that has ever been written upon similar subjects. From the moment the author gets in sight of FIodden Field, indeed, to the end of the poem, there is no tame writing, and no intervention of ordinary passages. He does not once flag or grow tedious; and neither stops to describe dresses and ceremonies, nor to commemorate the harsh names of feudal barons from the Border. There is a flight of five or six hundred lines, in short, in which he never stoops his wing, nor wavers in his course; but carries the reader forward with a more rapid, sustained, and lofty movement, than any epic bard that we can at present remember.'

Stanza XXXV. 1. 1067. Lockhart quotes from Byron's 'Lara' as a parallel,—

'Day glimmers on the dying and the dead, The cloven cuirass, and the helmless head,' &c.

line 1084. 'There can be no doubt that King James fell in the battle of Flodden. He was killed, says the curious French Gazette, within a lance's length of the Earl of Surrey; and the same account adds, that none of his division were made prisoners, though many were killed; a circumstance that testifies the desperation of their resistance. The Scottish historians record many of the idle reports which passed among the vulgar of their day. Home was accused, by the popular voice, not only of failing to support the King, but even of having carried him out of the field, and murdered him. And this tale was revived in my remembrance, by an unauthenticated story of a skeleton, wrapped in a bull's hide, and surrounded with an iron chain, said to have been found in the well of Home Castle, for which, on enquiry, I could never find any better authority than the sexton of the parish having said, that, IF THE WELL WERE CLEANED OUT, HE WOULD NOT BE SURPRISED AT SUCH A DISCOVERY. Home was the chamberlain of the King, and his prime favourite; he had much to lose (in fact did lose all) in consequence of James's death, and nothing earthly to gain by that event: but the retreat, or inactivity, of the left wing, which he commanded, after defeating Sir Edmund Howard, and even the circumstance of his returning unhurt, and loaded with spoil, from so fatal a conflict, rendered the propagation of any calumny against him easy and acceptable. Other reports gave a still more romantic turn to the King's fate, and averred, that James, weary of greatness after the carnage among his nobles, had gone on a pilgrimage, to merit absolution for the death of his father, and the breach of his oath of amity to Henry. In particular, it was objected to the English, that they could never show the token of the iron belt; which, however, he was likely enough to have laid aside on the day of battle, as encumbering his personal exertions. They produce a better evidence, the monarch's sword and dagger, which are still preserved in the Herald's College in London. Stowe has recorded a degrading story of the disgrace with which the remains of the unfortunate monarch were treated in his time. An unhewn column marks the spot where James fell, still called the King's Stone.'—SCOTT. See also Mr. Jerningham's 'Norham Castle,' chap. xi.

line 1084. See above, V. vii, &c.

Stanza XXXVI. line 1096. 'This storm of Lichfield Cathedral, which had been garrisoned on the part of the King, took place in the Great Civil War. Lord Brook, who, with Sir John Gill, commanded the assailants, was shot with a musket-ball through the vizor of his helmet. The royalists remarked that he was killed by a shot fired from St. Chad's Cathedral, and upon St. Chad's day, and received his death-wound in the very eye with which, he had said, he hoped to see the ruin of all the cathedrals in England. The magnificent church in question suffered cruelly upon this, and other occasions; the principal spire being ruined by the fire of the besiegers.'—SCOTT.

Ceadda, or Chad, after resigning the bishopric of York in 669 A. D., was appointed Bp. of Lichfield, where he 'lived for a little while in great holiness.' See Hunt's 'English Church in the Middle Ages,' p. 17.

line 1110. The allusion is to the old fragment on Flodden, which has been so skilfully extended by Jean Elliot and also by Mrs. Cockburn in their national lyrics, 'The Flowers o' the Forest.'

line 1117. Once more the poet uses the irony of events with significant force.

Stanza XXXVII. line 1125. There is now a font of stone with a drinking cup, and an inscription on the back of the font runs thus:- -

'Drink, weary pilgrim, drink and stay, Rest by the well of Sybil Grey.'

Stanza XXXVIII. In this stanza the poet indicates the spirit in which romances are written, clearly indicating that those only that have ears will be able to hear. 'Phonanta sunetoisin' might be the watchword of all imaginative writers. Cp. Thackeray's 'Rebecca and Rowena.'

line 1155. Hall and Holinshed were chroniclers of the sixteenth century, to both of whom Shakespeare was indebted for pliant material.

line 1168. Sir Thomas More, Lord Sands, and Anthony Denny. See Henry VIII.

lines 1169-70. The references are to old homely customs at weddings. See Brand's 'Popular Antiquities.'

L'ENVOY.

Scott's fondness for archaisms makes him add his L'Envoy in the manner of early English and Scottish poets. See e.g. Spenser's 'Shepherd's Calendar' and the 'Phoenix' of James VI.

line 4. Rede, 'used generally for TALE or DISCOURSE.'—SCOTT.

line 6. Cp. William Morris's introduction to 'Earthly Paradise,' where the poet calls himself

'The idle singer of an empty day.'

line 17. This hearty wish is uttered, no doubt, with certain reminiscences of the author's own school days. His youthful spirit, and his genial sympathy with the young, are prominent features in the character of Sir Walter Scott.



Footnotes:

{1} Lockhart quotes:—'He resumed the bishopric of Lindisfarne, which, owing to bad health, he again relinquished within less than three months before his death.'—RAINE'S St. Cuthbert.

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

{3} See Pennant's Tour in Wales.

{4} 'First Edition—Mr. Brydone has been many years dead. 1825.'

{5} '"Lesquels Escossois descendirent la montaigne in bonne ordre, en la maniere que marchent Its Allemans, sans parler, ne faire aucun bruit"—Gazette of the Battle, PINKERTON'S History, Appendix, vol. ii. p. 456.'

THE END